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Last billion
by Arunjay KatakamA regular podcast covering the latest news, research and analysis of mobile, digital and ICT tools for improving development outcomes around the globe.
Copyright: Arunjay Katakam
Episodes
12. Season 3: Ep 2 - Data science and social work with Ronda Zelezny-Green
26m · Published12. Season 3: Ep 1 - AgTech and insurance, helping farmers but resilience
23m · PublishedWhat advancements could the agricultural sector anticipate due to the developments in the mobile industry?
The mobile revolution has favoured many sectors of the economy, with industries as varied as fashion, gaming and real estate, to name but a few, all finding innovative ways to leverage its growth. One industry sector that's worth taking a closer look at is agriculture.
As Arunjay speaks with our guest for today's episode Rishi Raithatha, who's a financial specialist and writer, you'll learn how the agricultural industry can team up with mobile network operators and mobile money technology to build climate resilience through accurate climate and weather predictions and devise financially inclusive insurance schemes for farmers.
As a digital finance specialist with extensive experience working in technology offering insurance to smallholder farmers, Rishi has devoured multiple kinds of research that reduce financial inequalities in the farming industry. Today's conversation will introduce you to the technical side of the business, helping you ascertain the incredible potential that technology is offering to the farming industry.
Time-stamps:
[1:18] Rishi's experience working in GSMA for four and a half years and what he learned about mobile money from his time there
[5:38] What is climate resilience?
[6:28] How do you help farmers build climate resilience?
[7:58] Using commercial microwave links as virtual weather sensors to monitor and map rainfall measurements
[13:50] Using mobile money to facilitate financial inclusion of farmers
[16:38] How Pula can unify farmers across regions and make insurance coverage accessible to them all
[18:24] What is meant by the weather insurance index?
[19:28] Rishi explains how his job role allows him to landscape potential markets and value chains
[22:27] Where you can connect with Rishi
Connect with Rishi
Personal Website: https://rishiraithatha.com/
Connect with Us
Website: https://www.lastbillion.org/
11. The state of fintech and mobile money in a COVID world
16m · PublishedWith the ongoing pandemic calling out for increased mobility in every industry, the mobile money and fintech sectors are moving fast to cater to its diverging market. Director of Strategic Projects at MFS Africa, Nika Naghavi, joins hosts Janet Shutlist and Arunjay Katakam on the Last Billion podcast to offer her extensive knowledge about the past, present, and future of mobile money.
Mobile money is ALL the rage these days. In less than ten years, it has grown from an interesting idea to a worldwide phenomenon. In this episode, we explore the latest stats and trends in mobile money and how agents re-emerged stronger post COVID. We dig into the advances made with fintech in the past year, re-visit three major mobile money trends from 2016, and find out the reasons for mobile money dominance in Africa. Skeptical about the unimagined push to digitalization today? Tune in to also understand why questions pertaining to unprecedented digital transformation need to be better addressed.
Time-stamps:
[00:43] - Nika discusses the highlights around mobile money from last year.
[02:50] - Learn how agents fared last year - the challenges faced and how they revived from there.
[03:57] - Bulk payments quadrupled in 2020. Learn about bulk disbursements (as government subsidies and NGO disbursements) and the need for more subsidies and protection programs by governments.
[05:46] - Arunjay on the happenings around Fintech the previous year.
💰 Fintechs have raised $23B across the regions since 2017
🌍 Africa’s average seed rounds stand at $1M, India and Latin America average $4M
🦄 Latin America is IPO-hungry, India breeds unicorns while Africa is just getting started with M&A
💳 Payments, credit, and neobanks lead fintech activity
Access the full report here: https://bfaglobal.com/catalyst-fund/briter-catalyst-fund-state-of-the-fintech-industry-report/
[07:05] - Three major mobile money trends from 2016 revisited.
Three major mobile money trends to watch in 2016 | by Arunjay Katakam
[08:26] - Is lack of competition the reason for mobile money dominance in Africa?
[10:24] - Will the gains due to pandemic stick post-pandemic?
[11:48] - Demonetization in India and its short-lived benefits - A case study
Connect With Nika:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nika-naghavi-a15b6448/
Connect With Us: https://www.lastbillion.org/
10. The future of mobile money: battleground or playground?
21m · PublishedIn this episode, host Janet Shulist facilitates a debate between Arunjay Katakam, futurist and entrepreneur and Nika Naghavi, Director of Data and Insights for the Mobile Money Program at the GSMA. Arunjay and Nika debate the future of mobile money in developing countries, with Nika representing the MNOs and Arunjay representing Fintechs and over-the-top players.
Guest bios:
Nika Naghavi is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business models, disruptive innovation, best practices and social impact opportunities. Nika joined GSMA in 2013 and has held various roles, including overseeing Mobile Money Programme’s publication and projects as well as designing an overarching data strategy to ensure that the Programme keeps providing the most relevant analytics and insights to meet the needs of the industry.
Arunjay Katakam is motivated by his passion for financial inclusion and solving poverty, Arunjay is focused on how he can use technology for good, breaking down barriers to democratise money. A highly regarded payment expert with strong strategic and analytical skills, Arunjay worked with the GSMA Mobile Money programme for five years. Where he provided a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of mobile money including analysing the impact of new technologies and business models. As advisor to the Head of Mobile Money, in 2018 Arunjay led the strategy pivot to a Payments as a Platform approach and helped secure $17m funding for phase 4 of the programme.
Janet Shulist has more than six years of experience supporting financial inclusion initiatives through digital finance and mobile technology in emerging markets. She runs her own consultancy to support fintechs and digital finance providers and previously was a Mobile Money Insights Manager at GSMA.
Key topics:
- Nika fills us in on some of the key highlights from this year’s state of the industry report on mobile money.
- Janet asks the guests how MNOs and Fintech companies have responded to the unique challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Who is better equipped to reach those last one billion unconnected people- MNOs or Fintech companies?
Introduction to the Last Billion
19s · PublishedWelcome to the last billion podcast. This is a regular podcast that shines a light on the people, programs and tools that aim to end poverty for the last billion people in the next 10 years.
9. News: Closing the gender gap and Nigeria set to soar
14m · PublishedOur hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news:
1. Tech speeding up aid operations in 2019
http://news.trust.org/item/20191217232954-gshlg/
2. The threat to MNOs is finally here, it's not Banks, it's not Facebook/WhatsApp/Google, etc and it is not mainstream Chinese players Alibaba and Tencent (at least not yet). The treat is coming from other Chinese actors.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/17/operas-africa-fintech-startup-opay-gains-120m-from-chinese-investors/
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/12/palmpay-launches-in-nigeria-on-40m-round-led-by-chinas-transsion/
3. Designing to close the gender gap
https://www.womenandmoney.design/#opportunities
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com
8. News: MTN Nigeria, EdTech Readiness, Libra and Pooling demand for mobile channels
16m · PublishedOur hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news:
1. MTN Nigeria launches mobile money agent service
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/money-home-banner/mtn-nigeria-launches-mobile-money-agent-service/
2. Thinking through an EdTech Readiness Index
https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/new-global-edtech-readiness-index
3. The group overseeing Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency apply for a payments license in Switzerland
https://nextbillion.net/news/the-group-overseeing-facebooks-libra-cryptocurrency-will-apply-for-a-payments-license-in-switzerland/
4. Pooled demand for mobile channels - new DIAL paper
https://digitalimpactalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Mobile-Channels-SSA-final.pdf
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com
7. Insights from GSMA m360 Africa
16m · PublishedThis week we have a special guest on the show: Nika Naghavi (@naghavinika) to discuss GSMA's m360 Africa conference last month in Kigali, Rwanda.
Nika is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business models, disruptive innovation, best practices and social impact opportunities. Nika also led advocacy engagements related to the role of mobile money in reducing the costs of international remittances and collaborated with Harvard Business School to publish the first-ever large-sample quantitative analysis of the expansion of digital financial services.
More blogs: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/person/nika-naghavi/
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com
6. Insights: Digitising humanitarian payments
14m · PublishedThis week, our hosts Jenny Frydrych (@jennyfrydrych) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) talk about digitising humanitarian payments, based on a paper Jenny wrote: Humanitarian Payment Digitisation: Focus On Uganda’s Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement
You can download the full paper here: http://bit.ly/2LQLUl0
Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com
5. News: Innovations in Governance, Energy Access and Genomics
13m · PublishedOur hosts Janet Shulist (@janshu) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) take you through this week's news:
1. Digital governance innovation in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh (India)
https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/digital-governance-krishna-glimpse-future-working-paper.pdf
2. Big Data, Big Opportunity: Is Data Science the Key to Universal Energy Access?
https://nextbillion.net/data-science-and-universal-energy-access/
3. HealthTech on the rise: 54gene funding round in Nigeria
https://qz.com/africa/1660709/nigeria-health-startups-54gene-mdaas-global-raise-big-funding/
4. An update on Facebook's Libra
5. Afro-Asia FinTech fest https://afroasiafintech.net/ and apply for funding at https://matchi.biz/hackcelerator2019.html
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com
Last billion has 15 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 3:45:19. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on October 25th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on March 25th, 2024 15:42.